The chief rabbi of Poland, who criticised one of the Conservative party's new allies in Europe over past links to a neo-Nazi group, today refined his views, saying the leader of the Polish Law and Justice party, Michal Kaminski, was "today against antisemitism".

The foreign secretary, David Miliband, launched a high-profile attack on Kaminski in his speech at last month's Labour party conference, citing comments made by the chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, to the New Statesman magazine.

Miliband told the conference that the Pole's "antisemitic, neo-Nazi past" made him feel "sick". The Tories were furious about the remarks and the party leader, David Cameron, demanded Miliband retract his comments, which he has refused to do.

Speaking about Kaminski, Schudrich said: "I certainly see him as a man that today, today, is against antisemitism", adding that Law and Justice was not a "fringe right party".

The row broke out when the New Statesman headlined a story "Jewish leaders turn on Tories" in which Schudrich was quoted in an email saying: "It is clear that Mr Kaminski was a member of the NOP [National Revival of Poland], a group that is openly far-right and neo-Nazi."

Schudrich later complained he had been misrepresented so the magazine changed the article's headline online but noted that the chief rabbi had not retracted his comments.

Schudrich told BBC Radio 4's Today programme today that Kaminski was a "complicated person" who he acknowledged had been a member of the NOP as a teenager, but he now regarded Kaminski as a "serious ally to the state of Israel". Explaining why the politician now enjoyed his confidence, Schudrich said: "He has become a strong ally of the state of Israel and on other occasions has condemned antisemitism.

"So what we have here is a complicated person, and we need to be able to understand him in a fuller context, not taking on things he said but taking a look at what he has said over the past 20 years."

However, Schudrich refused to condone Kaminski's membership of the NOP, which he described as "problematic", and said he completely disagreed with Kaminski's opposition to a state apology for the massacre of hundreds of Jews in German-occupied Jedwabne in 1941.

Miliband is still refusing to modify his analysis. Responding to Schudrich's decision to contest the article from which he was quoting when he attacked Kaminski at the party conference, he said Schudrich was only quibbling with the headline of the New Statesman article rather than the content.